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THOMAS ALLEN JENCKES, 



Jidne.y Smifii Xi'lci' 
1^7 4. 



■^.\ 









The statesman, the lawyer, the man of letters, and the 
teacher, have each in their turn given us their reminiscences 
of Thomas A. Jenckes, — why should not I, who am but a 
plain man of business, but yet one who withal kncAV some- 
what of the man departed, why should not I add my little, 
to that already accumulated, that posterity may learn why 
some of us thought well of him ? Thrown by the nature of 
my avocation into daily contact with the best intellects in 
Rhode Island, I came by necessity to know Mr. Jenckes 
whose mental requirements soon made themselves manifest 
wherever he was. 

If to the comparative anatomist the claw of an animal is 
a sure guide to the kind of food required by the wearer 
thereof, or the perturbations of the surrounding planets 
indicate with unerring certainty to the cool and clearly 
reasoning astronomer the existence of a new planet, so 
likewise may one who knows the character of books deter- 
mine the mental character of the readers theieof— books, 
like their progenitors, are companions. 



Mr. Jenckes was a voracious reader, he could devour the 
contents of a book while other men were considerinsr the 
question of reading it; — he was a judicious reader, knowing 
intuitively the portions to pass over unread — for all books 
are not to be all read. 

An examination of his library would disclose books in 
every department of science, of history, of literature, books 
not kept for ornament, but showing hard marks of use. He 
would sometimes read the veriest nonsense as a relief to his 
mind after some severe mental labor. His sense of the 
ridiculous was keen, and his wit was bright. 1 have known 
him to come late from the courts, while yet the sternness of 
battle sat upon his brow, sit down in his office and read isr 
for an hour some of the light witticisms of the day, like 
Phenixiana, or The Widow Bedott Papers, laugh at their 
nonsense and enjoy their fun, and arise from his chair as 
fresh as a morning in June. 

How much I have drawn from the stores of knowledge 
which others have acquired with whom I have been thrown 
in contact, the good Professor Dunn and the genial and 
gentle Albert G. Greene, were they living, could amply 
testify, for times without number have I vexed them with 
my questions, and listened in return to the conversation of 
men whose lips were always opened for some good to come 
forth. 



Among all the men to whom I am indebted for kindnesses 
like these there was no man to whom I was more indebted 
than to Mr. Jenckes. Whoever smote the rock of his 
knowledge was amply rewarded with the abundant streams 
which gushed forth. His judgment of books, guided by his 
immense reading, was good, for certainly his knowledge was 
ample, and he was as ready to describe to me the merits 
of the latest poem, as to teach me of the smoothness and 
elegance of the language of the Institutes of Justinian. 

Never shall I forget a ride to Stonington, during which 
Mr. Jenckes talked to me of the Roman law, a subject of 
which I was profoundly ignorant. He spoke of the mar- 
vellous recovery of the manuscript of Gains, and of the 
remarkable similarity of its language to that of the Institutes 
of Justinian, of Avhich Tribonian had been supposed to be 
the author. He almost repeated the splendid chapter from 
Gibbon on these subjects, and with eloquence discoursed of 
the smoothness and roundness of the language in which 
these ancient laws have come down to us, made so, as he 
said, by the discussions of the Homan lawyers as they paced, 
after the day's work was ended, the floor of the Forum, 
discussing the foundation and nature of their laws, and 
rounding the phrases in which they found expression, as the 
pebbles upon the beach were rounded into form and polished 
by the ceaseless beating of the surf upon the shores of the sea. 



The uses and advantages of such a conversation to a 
young man are beyond calculation, no matter in what 
direction his walk of life may lead him ; a desire for further 
knowledge is awakened which must be gratified ; new and 
fresh thoughts aroused, and direction and force given to 
vague and indefinite desires. Thus the wholesome influence 
of the scholar survives his departure, as Longfellow has 
recently so well expressed it : 

when a great man dies 

The light he leaves behind him lies 
Along the paths of men. 

Many a time have I sat in his office with him while he 
related to me stories, with which his mind was filled, of the 
political struggles of 1842. With what spirit and enthu- 
siasm he described to me his fruitless search through the 
town on the night of the 17th of May, 1842, for the com- 
mander of the Law and Order forces, and how, in the early 
morning of the 18th, the commander. Gen. Martin Stoddard, 
emerged from his hiding place and appeared on the side- 
walk on South Main street, with his excuses to Gov. Fenner, 
who listened to them with contempt, and seizing Stoddard 
by the collar, thrust him into the street, while he ejaculated 
in his severest tone: " And you a Major General !" afford- 



ing, as Mr. Jenckes laughingly said, the shortest trial and 
sentence by a court martial which had come within his 
knowledge. 

A few months before his death Mr. Jenckes requested me 
to go with him to his office, where he gave me a copy of every 
printed brief, argument, and speech, which he had made. 
He then brought from their dusty hiding places, boxes of 
papers, from which he selected certain packages, and which 
he desired me to remove and to keep safely, at the same 
time stating that these documents would be of value in 
elucidating the history of the change in Rhode Island from 
the charter government to the constitutional form. Upon 
examination these parcels were found to contain letters 
from the most prominent men in the State upon the political 
questions of tlie day, the juivate journal of the Governor's 
Council during 1842, in I\Ir. Jenckes' own hand writing, 
and a great many papers, valuable to the future historian 
of these events. Allusion to this circumstance having been 
made in a recent daily paper, it is mentioned here only to 
illustrate the relations which existed between Mr. Jenckes 
and my>-elf, and t ■» show the confidence, that for some reason 
to me unknown, he reposrd in me. These documents, with 
two exceptions, are still in my possession. 



8 

The evenness and balance of his mind was, as one of the 
ablest of his contemporaries has well said, one of the best 
evidences of the greatness cf the man ; unmoved by disasters 
which would have appalled most men, he pursued the even 
tenor of his way; assailed by a political malignity unequalled 
in our day (but rather a relic of 1833), seeing in a day his 
entire fortune wither like a leaf in autumn, and, as with a 
single blast blown from the face of the earth, meeting directly 
thereafter the loss of political friends consequent upon such 
a catastrophe — who ever heard him complain ? I well 
remember a tale told in public during one of these exciting 
conflicts, by a member of the Society of Friends, whose 
sombre countenance, long coat and traditionary history 
bespoke a better government of the tongue — a tale which, if 
true, made Mr. Jenckes little better than a highwayman — 
within ten minutes afterwards also have I seen the written 
records of confutation — the ma'igned had no word of com- 
plaint to utter, while he exhibited the proofs of his inno- 
cence ; but the tale of the maligner had done its work. 
Both are now gone ; the traducer is face to face with the 
traduced, and both are before a judge in whose judgment 
there will be no error. 



9 

An extract from one of Mr. Jenckes poems so well illus- 
trates such an act as that described that I cannot forbear 
making a quotation : 

" So thine own bird the warrior eagle, nurst 
Where rolls the avalanch and thunders burst; 
Soared from his mountain eyry free and high, 
And thousands watched him wheeling through the sky; 
Upward he sprang exulting on his fiight. 
Then pausVi and fluttered— from his cloudy height 
Men saw his fall, and wondered as he gaz'd; 
No bolt was sped — no blasting lightning blaz'd. 
The secret viper, curled beneath his wing, 
Poison'd the life blood in the heart's warm spring, 
Sank the proud bird, once monarch of the skies, 
His dying hymn the raven's funeral cries." 

To all the calumnies which poisoned the minds of men 
during these political struggles, he made no answer. 

" Trusting a power above all rulers' art, 
The power that guides to truth the human heart." 

We all know the dignity of his demeanor, the almost 
austerity of his manner, but underlying these there was 
kindness, as the writer has experienced. Some one recently, 
in one of our daily papers, said ; " The oak that stands apart 
from its fellows becomes the monarch of the forest :" so with 



10 

Mr. Jenckes, who, yet further like the oak, maintained an 
erect position amidst the howlings of the tempests, unmoved 
b}^ clamor, and diffusing knowledge as the oak distils from 
its leaves and limbs gentle nourishment for the humbler 
plants below. 

I come now to speak of certain events which most men 
are only too willing to suppress, but by the disclosure of 
which another phase of character in Mr. Jenckes may be 
illustrated, neither do I know of any other way in which it 
can be so well illustrated as by this personal history. If it 
tends to exhibit a fine trait in a character overloaded by 
detraction I suiely may be pardoned for alluding to it. 
Adverse winds had shattered my pecuniary fortunes. Upon 
learning this fact, Mr. Jenckes came at once to see me, made 
minute inquiry into the causes and extent of the disaster, 
proffering me at the same time advice and counsel, such as 
only those possessed of a])undant wealth could command, 
given without a pecuniary consideration to one, at the time, 
entirely unable to repay him. Throughout my troubles he 
continued to guide me by his legal advice, and encourage me 
b}^ his daily counsel, not forgetting to leave his home on the 
Cumberland Hills in the early morning to supply me with 
arguments necessary, as he thought, to my assistance, but 
unasked for by me — and albeit ignorant as I was of the 
fact that he knew the day on which I should need them. 



11 

If by this personal exposure I have thrown a light upon 
the character of one of Rhode Island's greatest men, I have 
done what I could to repay his kindness, and I mind not the 
sacrifice of the exposure. 

If I have succeeded in exhibiting the character of Mr. 
Jenckes in a pleasant light, the desired result in attempting 
this paper has been accomplished. 

To other and abler pens than mine must be left the task 
of analyzing the character of this great man ; the extent of 
his great learning, the grasp of his mind, his analytical 
power, the clearness of his reasoning, united as were all 
these qualities to his great love of nature, of poetry and of 
wit. Sidney S. Eidek. 

IVovidence, January, 1876. 



14 












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